The Attitude Era DVD Does The Job, But No Different From Other Releases.

By Maurice D. Proffit

Photo Courtesy Of Tribalwrestling.com

This week, the WWE released its new DVD from WWE Home Video. The new released is “The Attitude Era” DVD, chronicling the golden days of what may’ve been the WWE’s most financially successful time period since the company has been in business. When you play word association and think of the Attitude Era, you automatically think: Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, DX, Mankind, Mr. McMahon,The Ministry of Darkness, the Helmsley-McMahon regime, etc. Just to name a few. It was a time period that may never be forgotten in the future days of pro wrestling history. A time period where pro wrestling popularity reached heights that it never even fathomed. A time period where anti establishment was encouraged. A time period that reshaped wrestling all together.

This time of wrestling was a memorable one, but the DVD really didn’t do anything any different that past WWE DVD’s have done when telling the story of the wrestling business from the years 1997-2001.

Just a bit of a pro tip, if you already own the WWE Monday Night Wars DVD from 2004, then you basically already own this collection, since most of the content came from that documentary.

However, in all fairness, I can understand the lack of depth, because there is only so much you can chronicle in terms of a 4 year period of wrestling. Especially when you are telling a story that has been told many times before.

The documentary is less than an hour long and most of the DVD are various clips from past Attitude Era moments from Raw. Most of the matches are on disc 2 and 3 of the DVD (disc 2 of the Blu Ray)

It was devastatingly refreshing to be able to watch this DVD without any of the WWF scratch logos censored out. Almost felt dignifying watching this again. Also, the word “WWF” was not censored either, which was even better in terms of continuity.

But to go over a couple of highlights, I did appreciate their explanation and back story behind the “Brawl For All” matches that took place during this era and really illustrating how creativity had limited bounds when putting together these story lines.

To have an idea what all is in this DVD, here is a detailed gloss over the contents:

Some Matches:

Marc Mero vs Sable: Raw 5/1998

Brawl For All: Steve Williams vs Bart Gunn 7/1998

Mankind vs The Rock: Survivor Series 1998

Lions Den Match: Ken Shamrock vs Owen Hart

Four Coners Match for the WWF Tag Team Titles: Undertaker and Stone Cold vs Kane and Mankind vs The New Age Outlaws vs The Rock and Owen Hart: Raw 8/1998

The Rock and Undertaker vs Mankind and Stone Cold: Raw 12/1998

The Undertaker vs Stone Cold Steve Austin: Raw 6/1999

The Debut of Y2J : 8/1999

Austin giving the corporation a beer bath. 3/1999

One thing that was a bit bothersome was that there are some “Best Buy Exclusives” (If you purchase the DVD from Best Buy you will get Stephanie McMahon vs Lita; Hardys vs Dudleys Raw 2000, A segment with Al Snow and Head, and Mae Young giving birth to a hand (they could’ve kept that) ), you only get this in the DVD, NOT the Blu Ray.

From the moment Vince McMahon made the PSA about “The days of ‘Saying your Prayers and Taking your Vitamin’ are now passe” to the evolution of the popularity of DX, Stone Cold and The Rock, to the Divas showcasing sex appeal, to the overwhelming fan involvement, to the purchase of World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling. This DVD does do the job its supposed to do, in terms of taking you back to this golden era of wrestling.

Grade: C+/B- (Only because the story of this DVD has been told many different times in many different ways)